Freedom - The American Dream

Last week there was a column in The Sun that asked the question, “What happens when the American dream dies?” As noted in the column the American dream of “infinite plenty, a bottomless cup of creature comforts, and fair rewards for hard work” are fading. The value of pension plans, cheap gasoline, and inexpensive mortgages has already disappeared as was also mentioned.

However, the real American dream, the one thing that allows for cheap gasoline, inexpensive mortgages, plenty of creature comforts, and valuable pensions is freedom. Individual liberty, the ability of the individual to decide for himself his lot in life, is what provides all wealth created in America.

Government does not create the inexpensive mortgages, the pensions, and everything Americans enjoy. Government never has nor does it create the standard of living individuals around the world envy, no matter ethnicity, religious belief, or country of origin.

Freedom, the opportunity to create unlimited amounts of wealth for oneself, is the American dream because it allows for the creation of that wealth. However, that dream is fast becoming non-existent, which is why inexpensive mortgages, cheap gasoline, and infinite plenty is fading.

As America becomes more of an empire the need for more government control of the individual is required. With the invasion of Iraq, the meddling in other countries affairs, and the lives of all individuals around the world, the greatest threat to liberty is government coercive force.

War is the health of the state. War encourages more government spending requiring increased taxation, and that which is not paid for through taxation is paid for through inflation. War, through taxation and inflation, allows government to take over the lives of individuals and their individual decision making. Witness now the restrictions on travel within the United States let alone international travel. By January, 2008 Americans will need passports to travel to Canada and Mexico and at the rate America is traveling toward tyranny, producing “papers” to travel from Arizona to New Mexico cannot be too far behind.

The requirement for government to control individuals increases as the necessity for war increases. The necessity for war increases because government needs more power to exist. Americans are losing their ability to have inexpensive mortgages because of government control of their money. Americans are losing their ability to have cheap gasoline because of government control of gasoline markets. Americans are losing control of their infinite plenty because Americans are losing control of their lives to government. Government sucks the very lifeblood out the free market system that creates the wealth Americans possess.

The coercive power of government force, under the guise of law, which takes the rightful property of some and gives to others, in other words, the complete control of the individual, is a scenario that happens throughout history and the ramification to Americans is no different. American wealth is being depleted as a result of the freedoms Americans are losing in exchange for the so-called “security” of government protection. The problem is the desire for government protection has outstripped its constitutional boundary.

Liberty cannot and will not die if Americans look at government for what it truly is, coercive force. No terrorist, foreign or domestic, can destroy American liberty unless Americans give up that liberty. Daniel Webster had it correct when he stated in 1837, “Our destruction, should it come at all, will be from another quarter. From the inattention of the people to the concerns of their government, from their carelessness and negligence, I must confess, that I do apprehend some danger. I fear that they may place too implicit a confidence in their public servants, and fail properly to scrutinize their conduct; that in this way they may be made dupes of designing men, and become the instruments of their own undoing.”

The United States Constitution was created to bind down and constrain government officials so they would not start wars without a declaration from the representatives of the people thereby placing controls on elected individuals from endangering the lives of the citizenry and preventing the individual from achieving the American dream, freedom.

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Tomorrow, August 17, at 7 PM at The Freedom Library the nineteen propositions to be voted on this November by the Arizona electorate will be discussed at the Yuma Freedom Discussion Society meeting led by Mr. Joseph Melchionne.

Scholarship applications are currently being taken by The Freedom Library for its education program in order for individuals to learn more about the United States Constitution. Remit a completed application by going to www.freedomlibrary.org or call 726-8050 to give yourself an opportunity to earn a $1,000 scholarship. Individuals of all ages 12 and up are eligible. The program begins August 22.